A journalist, a business executive and a lawyer walked into a bar … and were promptly told, "We don't need your kind around here."

That's the rude welcome the Pew Research Center gave me and many business journal readers this week via a poll that asked Americans to rate 10 professions on their contributions to society. The military ranked No. 1, followed by teachers, medical doctors, scientists and engineers.

Clergy ranked No. 6, followed by artists, journalists, business executives and lawyers.

But methinks business executives deserve a little more respect -- after all, they're the folks creating most of the jobs in this country.

And the 10 percentage point drop in the value the public places in journalists is downright scary to this scribe. It turns out most of this decline is due to a dramatic decline in how women value journalists. Four years ago, 46 percent of women thought journalists contributed a lot to society. That's down to 29 percent now. Men's views on journalists didn't change much -- only 30 percent valued us in 2009, and 28 percent value us now.

Democrats value journalists more than Republicans, but even with Democrats there's been a 10-point drop in positive feelings.

So now you know why that journalist, business executive and lawyer walked into that bar. We need a drink.